Toyota’s all-new 2018 Camry tries (and may succeed) to excite

DETROIT—Several things come to mind when I
think of the Toyota Camry. It's reliable, competent, ubiquitous even;
the Camry has topped sales charts for a decade and a half now. But it's
not the most exciting thing on four wheels; it's a car that is sometimes
referred to as a driving appliance. Toyota has evidently decided to do
something about that perception. At the launch of the eighth-generation
Camry at this year's North American International Auto Show, the company
announced the new car has gained "emotionally charged design and
performance experience."

In other words, it's supposed to be fun to
drive and has gained some needed visual flair. According to the car's
Chief Engineer, Masato Katsumata, "In order to create something that
stirs people’s soul, we’ve laid out the concept of a new sedan that
provides fun and excitement behind the wheel." The new Camry uses the
same Toyota New Global Architecture platform as last year's Prius, and it's now lower, wider, and more sleek than the outgoing car.

The all-new Toyota Camry. It's lower and wider and
sleeker than before, and we think that from this angle it succeeded in
making it look quite sporty.

Jonathan Gitlin

If you opt for the SE or XSE trim (to make a
Camry Sport) you get bigger bumpers, a spoiler, and rear diffuser.

Jonathan Gitlin

Sensors packed into that nose enable an alphabet soup of driver assists.

Jonathan Gitlin

Toyota

The wheelbase is two inches (5.1cm) longer.
The roof is 1.6 inches (4.1cm) lower. The driver and passengers now sit
closer to ground, as in fact does the Camry's center of gravity. And,
it's true, the new car does look sportier and more exciting than what
may well have been the last taxi you rode in.

The cabin's ergonomics will seem very familiar
to anyone who's spent seat time in the seventh-gen car. But as you'll
see in the video above, the stylists have made more of an effort, with
some intersecting panels to break up any monotony. And despite that
lower roofline, it's at least as spacious as ever, including the back
seats. That's good news for those of you who use ridesharing services,
given how likely you'll be to find yourself in a Camry in the coming
years.

Toyota says three engines will be available,
including a 3.5L V6, a 2.5L inline-four, and the all-important hybrid.
The last of these won't be a plug-in, but its batteries have been
relocated to beneath the rear seats to aid handling. For now, no one
would go into specifics about power output or fuel economy beyond
telling us that the hybrid should be "class-leading."